A Simple Way To Increase Your Email Reach By 54.7% Today

I write about entrepreneurship, marketing, and ideas to grow companies

Have you ever seen an interesting email in your inbox and thought to yourself, “I’ll read that later”? You leave it unread with every intention of eventually opening up that email. Then later that day at 7:47 PM, after dinner, you catch up on email from friends, and start reading the various newsletters that have sprung up in the top of your inbox.

Did you ever get to that email?

Despite the fact that you made a mental note that you wanted to read it, chances are you didn’t. You got distracted by all the other emails that landed in your inbox. You were probably also distracted by your
Twitter, Facebook, and
LinkedIn feeds, and very important group chats on WhatsApp.

We’ve all experienced this.

But what if that email hit your inbox later that evening exactly when you’re reading your email? Maybe you would have read that email then. And perhaps it could have inspired your next big idea, or made you realize that the product in that email could turbo-charge your business.

Email should be about unique reach, not just open rates

This is exactly what we’re thinking about at the beginning of the year. We were setting our marketing goals for our flagship product, EasyBib, which included improving key performance metrics (“KPI”) such as email opens and click-through rates. When we thought about our ultimate goal—consistent brand reach to as many people possible—we realized there was another KPI we should consider: number of unique people reached.

That’s when it hit us: When we receive emails, we open it based on interest and timing.

What if we started re-sending emails to those who didn’t open our original one? That person who was distracted by SnapChat when we sent our original email just might see it the second time around.

The first time we did this, we immediately increased our overall reach to 54.7% more people compared to the original!

To put it in perspective, all the hours of investment dedicated to this content piece and email became 54.7% more effective. We were able to nurture 54.7% more leads. More importantly, we increased our sales potential by 54.7%. We did this just by investing another 50 minutes in sending out a second email to those who didn’t open up the first.

Numbers don’t lie

Lets look at some hard data. We recently sent out an email, and a follow up email, about an information literacy report our team of educators put together.

The original was sent to 2,723 people. 579 people opened it (21.3%) and 224 people clicked on the call to action (8.2% CTR).

The second email was sent to those who didn’t open the first email. 309 people opened this email and 114 people clicked on the call to action.

This means that between both emails, we reached 53.2% more people, and received 51.1% more clicks compared to the first! The number of unique opens between both emails was 32.6%.

The follow up email never performs as strong as the first. Analyzing a few sample email campaigns, we’ve seen a 44% drop in open rate, and 46% drop in click-through rate on the second email. This is likely because the follow up group represents more of your inactive readers.

Are there risks?

One of our biggest concerns is that we’d annoy our email list if they saw the same email twice. We mitigated this by only sending it those those who didn’t open the first email.

Still, there were likely people who saw the original email, and deleted it. There was no way for us to know. To address this, we send a second email a week later with minor changes—like changing the subject line or the placement and colors of the buttons. If we had more time, we’d create a different message in the email.

We were also very cautious of unsubscribes, especially on the second email. To our pleasant surprise, the unsubscribe rate stayed at our typical rate of .34%, and no one has complained. This meant that we were likely not annoying our email list. As an extra benefit, the second email was another touch point to further qualify our list and get unsubscribes.

One major consideration, however, is how this fits within your overall email strategy. You have to balance how many times you reach out to your email list, so try to get sense of if a follow-up email is one too many.

While we were at first apprehensive that we’d be abusing our list and potentially hurting our brand, we found comfort in thinking about our own email habits. What if that email you always wanted to read magically appeared at the top of your inbox?

Special shoutout to Danny Chan and Jenny Kessman on our marketing team for helping pioneer this strategy. Give me a shoutout on Twitter @tapneal if you'd ever like to chat!

I’m the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Imagine Easy Solutions. Our products are used by over 70 million people yearly. Our flagship product, EasyBib.com, is a popular research management and writing tool. Our newest product, GetCourse, allows marketers and trainers to add questio...